hmmm the initial reaction of most people to this will probably be "freakin euros have gone insane!"
This euro thought so too in the first few secs, but then the logic kicked in.

If Iran is going to enrich uranium anyway, and they do have the right to do it, then it is better to control it by offering help.
With the technical equpment, Germany, France and Britain will probably send people too, experts, to help build the whole thing. That way they will have people there, watching whats going on, they will have a friendly cooperation of iranian goverment and it might ease the tensions a bit, between Iran and the west.

The other thing is (I may be wrong) is that a light water reactor cannot develop plutonium.

Didn't Iran ask Europe for help getting nukes a little while back. I think the Europeans are obliging. Of course, they can't say so publicly, but they aren't interested in having Bush invade Iran, and the only way they can prevent it is to give Iran Ukes. How does Bush end up with these crazy policies?

Originally posted by FredT
The other thing is (I may be wrong) is that a light water reactor cannot develop plutonium.

Any fission reactor can make plutonium.
Actually any neutron source can make
plutonium, but reactors are usually cheaper to
obtain useful quantities. If Iran was really hell
bent on obtaining nuclear weapons they don't
even need reactors.. simply manufacture a few
million neutron tubes designed to run off line
current, distribute them among a few million
households and business, operate them for a
year with a shell of uranium enclosing them,
then collect them all and remove the plutonium
from the uranium.. instead of a TV in every
household turning brains to mush.. a neutron
tube helping the defense of the country.
Calculations show this is feasible in any
industrialized country with electric power
distribution. And there would be no way to
stop this kind of decentralized manufacturing
unless the country were bombed back into
the stone age, with no electricity at all.







[edit on 20-10-2004 by mockan]

Yeah the entire country made to watch 24 hour Martyr TV for 365 days, either that or Al'Jazeera with the new comedy based on the Osbourns called at home with the Bin Ladens...

I think our goverments are nuts anyway, selling nuclear power to any fudal nation is simply asking for trouble.

Good job Europe, using an intelligent idea to solve the situation instead of just blowing Iran up.